To Blog, or Not to Blog? That Is This Writer's Question
I’m conflicted about blogging. Halfway sour on it at the moment, actually. If trying to get your writing and your name in the public eye, there’s arguably no better way. But having done it off and on for roughly ten years, I’m still wavering: to blog, or not to blog? Answering this (un)fairly existential writer’s question lies in knowing what you want to achieve and whether blogging is how to do it.
Once upon a time, the world wide web was a free-for-all of personalities and their manifestations, streamlined only by technical constraints and limited access. Here, independent writers seeking a dependable venue published often personal or opinion-based content in the nascent “weblog” format, shortened to “blog” in 1999. Due to the advent and proliferation of online commerce and social media, coupled with an ever-expanding public of content creators and readers, this online diary genre has also evolved dramatically. While still documenting the author’s life, knowledge, or interests outside of institutional or corporate entities, many blogs have taken on a nearly retail role, previously reserved for commercial websites alone. For writers who blog to express — as opposed to support — ourselves and whose blog is our primary writing outlet, this has been a confounding turn.
Unlike the Internet’s early days, information is now plentiful on how to start, expand, and optimize your blog for any conceivable purpose. Hosting platforms are readily available, with Wordpress the uncontested giant among them. These websites are generally free- or low-cost, based on how deeply you dive in. Yet with its pace ramping up to the speed of light and the featured writing outnumbering the stars, the digital universe has grown all-encompassing and inescapably integrated into daily life. It’s enough to swallow burgeoning writers whole.
To garner any meaningful attention, bloggers have to work it all: social media, contacts and networks, search engine optimization (SEO), a posting calendar or schedule informed by analytics and synced with algorithms. (If any of this jargon is foreign to you, trust that a video and explanatory blogpost for mastering it exists. Google it.) Sadly, what first funnels readers to your blog won’t be the quality of your work, but your ability to mine and manipulate the data collected by every hosting platform, or a plug-in on offer. To stand out from the myriad glimmering talents in the blogosphere and successfully fan the “follower” flame, you’ll have to get savvy and at least a bit technical. The critical underlying question is whether this suits your reasons to blog.
If it’s readership or recognition you desire, blogging can yield it. Along with some luck, this'll take time and effort. Your precious time and your concerted effort, dedicated not exclusively to writing, but to strategic marketing and self-promotion, regardless of whether you decide to “monetize” your blog. Certainly, writers should be paid because writing is work. Work that should sustain the workers, enabling us to eat, drink, and be merry from time to time. Work that should afford us the shelter and equipment we require to live, live unencumbered by involuntary debt and self-sacrifice, and to continue working, that is, writing. Yes, blogging lets you charge. Just know that doing so has its own price.
While the potential to make a buck blogging has inflated in the current digital realm, the fact remains: living off writing is an unlikely story. Blogging is no get-rich-quick scheme or surefire recipe to being discovered as a writer. You are compensated through advertising and banners, original content (webinars and discussion boards), or sponsored content like product reviews; not your writing itself. If this isn’t a deterrent, limiting your audience might be: the high-minded literati therein may be repelled by ads or sponsorship, whereas your thrifty readers will balk at paying for content. Doesn’t everyone prefer something for nothing, especially at a fingerstroke? And shouldn’t society at large benefit from your brilliance without restriction? Yes and resounding yes. Alas, such unfettered welcome to the written fruits of your labor denies you the daily bread and supplementary butter you deserve (to crowd the table with food metaphors). This brings us full circle to the question on your proverbial author’s plate: to blog for the love of writing and the desire to make a name for yourself, or not to blog?
Should you brave the fraught blogging territory, consider the lay of the land before launching. Calculate your energy and temper your expectations of a completely carefree hobby. To cultivate reliable readers, writers have to blog reliably, creating and maintaining a consistent cycle. Plan, post, promote. Repeat. Publishing something, anything with relative frequency is more effective than producing an incomparable yet rare piece. In your regularly scheduled programming, allow for works-in-progress, unfinished, unpolished drafts, attempts, forays, experiments. Expect mistakes. They say that "perfect" is the enemy of the good. Wise words for the blogger. Often, even the good-enough will do. Then, having set your stride, the recurring, steady beat of your blogging presence, any pièce de résistance you post will resonate like a rhythmic solo for the audience you’ve drummed up. So, will you blog?
More on blogging:
It turns out that Claire E. White beat me to the Shakespearean punch: The Author's Dilemma: To Blog or Not to Blog. Her organized breakdown of blog types, pros, cons, and examples appear in the online magazine Writers Write.
A few blogs to follow:
On writing and publishing
The Creative Penn | Blog of New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thrillers and dark fantasy
DIY MFA | The do-it-yourself alternative to a Master’s degree in writing
Grammarly | Writing and grammar tips
Jane Friedman | Information and resources for writers, from a 20-year veteran of the publishing industry
The Novelry | Writing tips from award-winning and bestselling novelists
Original literary content
diacritics - DVAN | The Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN) celebrates, fosters, and represents Vietnamese and Southeast Asian diasporic literature, art, and culture.
The Drabble | Original fiction, nonfiction, and poetic works of 100 words or fewer
Literary Hub | The best of the literary web
Malinda Lo | A curated selection of the author’s blogposts on writing, diversity, LGBTQ+ young adult literature, and her books, dating back to 2008
The Marginalian | Marginalia on our search for meaning and inspiration
Walidah Imarisha | Blog and updates by educator, writer, public scholar, and spoken word artist Walidah Imarisha